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To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

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Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#141

Post by dmytroi »

dbcurtis wrote: post #79
lmilcin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble seems that there aren't many people that get software AND electronics AND mechanics AND on top of that marketing, right. It is rare enough to find people with good electronics and software skills.

After working in robotics for a few years, I came to the realization that people (applies especially to managers) don't recognize when they are bringing the wrong instincts to a problem. If you come up through software, you develop one set of instincts, EE another, and ME yet another set of instincts. When making a decision, step one must be identifying the appropriate set of instincts to bring to the problem. Once u…

I like your use of the instinct concept, similar to experience/seniority yet very different.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#142

Post by wott »

saeranv wrote: post #65
Scoundreller wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, but it seems overkill. I'm in an old office where the only openable window is consumed by a window A/C unit. I want to put a 120mm fan in a small opening next to it that'll turn on when it's more than 3C cooler outside, and more than 24C inside. Seems like an Arduino would do it.

I believe I found the researcher and thesis that informed the window project here: https://resenv.media.mit.edu/#Projects#personalized-building... I don't think it's overkill within the context of his full work. Based on my brief skimming, he's coupling the window with a personal device to modulate his environment through reinforcement learning.

This "Responsible Environment" website pegs my CPU...

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#143

Post by taneq »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #88
Retric wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as important is people are generally quite capable, so stuff people find annoying tends to be genuinely difficult. A mass market automated pill dispenser you can just dump your prescriptions in seems like an obviously viable product. But, building something that’s easy enough to use, reliable enough to be safe, and cheap enough to be affordable is a pipe dream.

You know I'll be actually surprised if that isn't a product, because that seems "As seen on TV" level amount of effort. Have some hopper with 7 compartments, put a disk with a hole underneath it, and hook it to some 3 cent digital clock module such that spins it around 50 degrees or so everytime it rolls over. Build the whole thing out of plastic, throw it at some factory in China, and before you know it you'll be se…

Sounds great until someone loads it wrong it doesn’t set the date correctly or something, gets the wrong dosage, and dies. The risk seems too high for the potential reward.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#144

Post by bmn__ »

reaperducer wrote: post #74
mymacbook wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing NeXT is supposed to be Nest (given IoT and HVAC).

Changing "Nest" to "NeXT" — That guy's phone must have the world's most awesome autocorrect learning database. I can't even get my phone to stop correcting "duck."

Add word to contact list.

https://web.archive.org/web/2008/http://tntluoma.com/iphone/...

(via Daring Fireball)

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#145

Post by ljm »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55
lmilcin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble seems that there aren't many people that get software AND electronics AND mechanics AND on top of that marketing, right. It is rare enough to find people with good electronics and software skills.

Very true. Having worked in this space, the failures usually come from lopsided teams. Too many startups try to treat these products as technology products with a side of building materials, assuming that the technology is the hardest part. In reality, the technology part is easy. The most difficult part is manufacturing and shipping reliable mechanisms at low cost. It can be done, but the mechanisms and mechanical p…

Reminds me of the Juicero, which took a fairly basic concept (validating a QR code and squeezing a packet of mushed up fruit pulp so juice would come out) and still comically failed because, even with all their meticulously machined gears and cogs, it did a much inferior job to a human hand and a few conveniently shaped kitchen utensils.

Never mind that an internet connected, custom-engineered juice press was a bad idea in the first place. It was still out-manufactured by simple tools like a garlic press, or a little metal thing you twist your fruit on top of. Or a blender.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#146

Post by Broken_Hippo »

mjevans wrote: post #128
tfigment wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much this. Last time my dad visited he had 4 pill boxes: 7am,10am,2pm,6pm. We had to color code so he knew which ones at which hour. They had to be portable, at least 10 and 2 did. He had slight dementia so he would get confused about colors and sometimes the day. Even worse was trying to decipher the instructions for each medicine to refill the boxes especially after some would change doses after initial couple…

It's really sad, but the automation for this is a pharmacy that creates custom plastic sealed single-dosing packets. Some people, most older people, are on THAT many meds and just need to take the next one off the roll.

I've seen this for a nursing home in Norway. I'm not sure if folks get this at home or not. I'd guess that some that get a home nurse at least once a day gets them. And honestly, they would usually seem to be a good solution.

I think the main weakness is that for a few folks, medicine changes would be difficult because they often are mid-week or mid-month and for some, they would really need their medicines re-packaged. I'm not sure this is as big of a problem in nursing homes and whatnot because the nurse is dispensing the meds, while some folks at home have bad memories or the beginnings of undiagnosed dementia and just won't remember.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#147

Post by culturestate »

ponker wrote: post #138
culturestate wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting; garbage chutes are required for any building over 4 storeys around here (Singapore). Some older places have individual chute openings in each flat, but most newer ones use centralized pneumatic systems, e.g. https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/our-role/smart-an...

Singapore and Japan are two countries where I've seen things work that don't work anywhere else because the citizenry treats the commons so well (whether out of pure civic pride or fear of some consequences I don't have any idea).

> whether out of pure civic pride or fear of some consequences I don't have any idea

A little of column A and a little of column B. Collectivism is sort of self-reinforcing, but there are also legal mechanisms that keep people honest.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#148

Post by Broken_Hippo »

bigiain wrote: post #102
dsr_ wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a great smart lock. The secret is, it's dumb. It has a keypad and a keyhole and a 9V battery that lasts about five years. About three months before the battery wears out, it starts beeping and blinking every time you open it, so you know it's time to replace the battery. You have to look in the manual to add or remove a code, but it remembers at least a dozen codes. It doesn't talk to a smartphone. It doesn't…

That sounds like it’s solved half the problem, at least it’s not another outdated Linux 2.7 machine with a nodejs app with no rate limiting listening to unencrypted http sessions over WAP “secured” wifi. But I wonder how it’d fare if someone like the lockpicking lawyer reviewed it’s mechanical lock design? Is it actually a good lock?

Is it actually a good lock?"

I'm not convinced it matters as long as it seems, to the layperson, to be a lock of average quality. No one really wants a lock to feel insecure if it is held in the hand, for example. And sure, if tests say you can just hit it and open it, you'll pass. But as long as it doesn't have obvious defaults... It is good.

Most locks really just keep out crimes of opportunity. Few folks have locks that will keep out folks that would destroy your front door or break your windows and few are real challenges to lockpicks. And the shouldn't be challenges to lockpicks! Otherwise, how would a locksmith do their work? It doesn't matter, though. Most folks simply aren't lockpicks - and a good number of folks that can* pick locks well do not have desires to break into homes.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#149

Post by Broken_Hippo »

axaxs wrote: post #17
squarefoot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. True home automation is something that changes your life, not gadgets for rich people. I will call true home automation for example when I can throw the trash into a hatch at my same floor in a bag with RFID tag so that it will send it down and sort out it for recycle. I recall when I was less than 10 (mid '70s) my grandparents having those hatches (minus electronics of course) in their building. They would leav…

For some reason this reminds me. My old house, built in the 40s, had a mysterious small hatch in the closet floor across from the bathroom. One day I opened it and it was just a cutout of the floor, directly over the washing machine in the basement below. I'm not sure if that's lazy or genius, but it doesn't get much easier than that I guess.

We lived in a house with one of these as I was growing up. It was a chute in the corner of a little room next to the bathroom (too small for a bedroom). That led down to a cabinet at the top of the basement stairs that held the dirty laundry until you washed it.

And to be fair, this house was built in 1918, and I think part of the purpose was to have their maids/servants wash them. Out of sight and all. This house also had doors sectioning off the kitchen and made sure the basement had its own entrance.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#150

Post by distances »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #88
Retric wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as important is people are generally quite capable, so stuff people find annoying tends to be genuinely difficult. A mass market automated pill dispenser you can just dump your prescriptions in seems like an obviously viable product. But, building something that’s easy enough to use, reliable enough to be safe, and cheap enough to be affordable is a pipe dream.

You know I'll be actually surprised if that isn't a product, because that seems "As seen on TV" level amount of effort. Have some hopper with 7 compartments, put a disk with a hole underneath it, and hook it to some 3 cent digital clock module such that spins it around 50 degrees or so everytime it rolls over. Build the whole thing out of plastic, throw it at some factory in China, and before you know it you'll be se…

I'm no market expert, but wouldn't a pill dispenser be a very niche product? Most people aren't on any medication and thus won't need one, at least until reaching old age.

Though the number of old folks is getting larger, so maybe that's a market by itself.

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